[802SEC] ISO versions of 802 standards

Having just taken part in the discussion in the closing SEC meeting
regarding submission of 802.11 standards to ISO, I am minded to make a
motion at the November Plenary session to make it 802 policy not to submit
802 standards to ISO in the future. There are a number of reasons, most of
them rehearsed in this afternoon's discussion, why I believe that having
ISO versions is a bad idea, including:
- Having two versions of the same standard leads to considerable confusion
in the marketplace;
- IEEE already has a significant profile as an organization that produces
standards (under their own brand) that are Internationally recognized, so
the process is of marginal utility and simply serves to dilute the IEEE brand;
- Keeping the documents "in sync" is problematic at best, and arguably
impossible;
- The process generates complications and extra work for the Editors and
the IEEE staff;
- The relevance of ISO as a source of networking standards is highly
questionable;
- As both ISO and IEEE will end up selling the document, there is the
potential for loss of IEEE revenue.
I think it is time that we reviewed our position on this issue. I will make
a motion at the Friday SEC meeting in November, and will remind you of my
intent to do this at the Monday SEC so that there will be an opportunity
for feedback on this from the WGs.
Regards,
Tony